


Children of the Gods

by ivorygates



Series: Across Five Aprils [3]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Daniverse, Episode: s01e01 Children of the Gods (1), Episode: s01e01 Pilot, Episode: s01e02 Children of the Gods (2), Fix-It, Gen, Minor Character Death, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-22
Updated: 2007-06-22
Packaged: 2017-11-25 15:04:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/640115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivorygates/pseuds/ivorygates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Children Of The Gods: The Daniverse Remix</p>
            </blockquote>





	Children of the Gods

They unburied the Stargate so she could try dialing some of the addresses she found in the Cartouche Room. None of them work – the Stargate doesn't turn on – and she doesn't know why. But it's been about eight months since Jack, Kawalsky, and Ferretti left, so she's pretty sure they're safe in unburying it. They don't blockade the Stargate again once she's given up. They just guard it. There are always people in the Gate Chamber, and they're all armed.  
  
She spends a lot of time there. And in the hidden passages of Nagada. And in the Cartouche Room.

There's so much to study.

She will not have so much free time once Skaara is married, but for now there is time. He is too young to marry this year, or next, but the girls are already vying for his attention. A year or two, before Kasuf begins to negotiate. At least.

Sha're will marry before the next time the moons are full. The negotiations for her marriage are finished. Sha're likes the man Kasuf has chosen for her -- Jarha -- and Dani likes him too. Perhaps she will ask Kasuf to give her to Jarha instead. She will have less status than if she belonged to Skaara, but she and Sha're would share a household. There is still time to decide.

On Abydos, after Kasuf dies, she will have to belong to someone. Within limits -- she doesn't want to be mistreated -- she really doesn't care who. She isn't in love. Never plans to be in love again.

Love is stupid, dangerous, and it hurts.

She's in the Cartouche Room, making notes in her journal. They recovered all the supplies from the buried Base Camp, including the blank journals Gary'd packed, but she's going to run out of paper soon no matter how small she writes, and – obviously – there's none here. Suddenly Ibana comes running in, shouting for her.

Something has come through the Stargate.

She gathers up her skirts and her backpack and runs.

#

It's lying in front of the Stargate when she arrives. They've all been afraid to touch it. She walks over and picks it up.

A box of Kleenex.

She pulls out a wad of tissues and blows her nose, sniffling. The dust is an eternal bother.

Jack sent this.

No one else would.

Why?

To see if it's safe to come back?

She's damned lucky he didn't send a bomb. But Jack wouldn't. He knows they're all here, and no threat to anybody.

Unfortunately, everybody back in Cheyenne Mountain now knows their Stargate will connect to Abydos again.

Oops.

The others are all looking at her.

"It's okay," she tells them. "Everything's fine."

She's taught them all English. They relax. They trust her. Didn't she slay a god?

There's time to wall it up again, if they're quick. Then Earth won't be able to reach them if they dial again, and nobody can come through.

But.

He's sent a message.

Obviously waiting for a reply.

Silence is a reply. Walling up the Stargate is a reply.

She paces, thinking.

Must have had to tell the truth eventually. But that's okay, because Ra is dead and the threat is gone. So… maybe they want to send scientists this time? To study?

There's a lot here to study.

Maybe Catherine could come.

"Dana're, what does it mean?" Skaara asks. He takes the Kleenex box from her hands, turns it over, examining it.

"It's a message," she tells him.

He examines it closely, but sees nothing he recognizes as writing. He hands it back.

She blows her nose again. He laughs. "When you are mine I will make you eat _yaphetta_ bread three times a day," he says.

"Have I told you that on Earth it is the custom for women to beat the men of their households?" she answers.

_" <Skaara needs to be beaten, and often,>"_ Sha're says. _" <Father will find him a wife with a strong arm and you will teach her all the customs of Earth!>"_ Sha're understands English, but does not speak it well or often – mostly from stubbornness, Dani thinks.

"I will rule in my own home!" Skaara says proudly.

_" <No man does that,>"_ Sha're says, tossing her head.

The argument is an old one. Dani knows perfectly well that all Skaara's threats are only a brother's teasing. She would be happy in his household. Their children would be beautiful. And related by blood to the royal house – Skaara will be priest-king after Kasuf's death -- a good reason to wait for Skaara instead of going with Jarha.

This isn't getting her anywhere.

What does Jack want?

There's no one here she can ask.

"What does the message say?" Skaara wants to know, impatient with her silence.

"It's from Jack O'Neill," she says. "I think he wants to come and visit."

"O'Neer?" Skaara says excitedly. Some combinations of consonants aren't found in Abydan. The names become garbled in translation. Jack's is one. "O'Neer will come back?"

Skaara idolized Jack. He still has the cigarette lighter Jack gave him, though it's long since run out of fuel.

"He might come. If we ask him. I don't know why he wants to come."

"For the wedding." A royal wedding is an important occasion. It is obvious in Skaara's mind that Jack – somehow – knows that Sha're is to be married. "He will come for the wedding. There will be a great feast. Two weeks!"

"Skaara, he doesn't--"

But Skaara has already run off to tell the others that Jack will be coming for his sister's wedding.

_" <He has no idea you're getting married, you know,>"_ she says to Sha're, switching back to Abydan.

_" <Earth is very far away,>"_ Sha're agrees. She thinks for a moment. _" <Yet he has sent you this gift. Perhaps he wishes to court you?>"_

It startles a laugh from her. _" <Oh, I really don't think so. But he wants something.>"_

What?

They all gather around her, wanting to know when Jack will come. Who will come with him.

Whether he will bring more ammunition for the guns.

She sighs. They _are_ running low. But still…

She's going to reply. She's decided that much. Finally she decides what to say.

She empties the Kleenex box. She's gone through half of it by now.

One thing she misses from Earth. Kleenex.

Well, that and coffee.

She takes a Sharpie from her backpack. Not one of the good ones. She isn't going to waste one of the few good writing instruments she has left on this. Thinks for a minute. What shall she write? Makes up her mind.

_'Thanks. Send more,'_ she writes at last. She goes over the letters several times to make sure they're legible.

Jack will understand this message is from her and no one else.

Dials the address for Earth.

Pushes the empty box into the… what did Barbara call it? Event horizon?

It's sucked in. Vanishes.

The event horizon vanishes.

"Now we wait," she tells them. "And when the _chappa'ai_ comes to life…"

"We hide," Skaara tells her proudly. "We wait. We are warriors."

She hopes she's done the right thing.

#

By the time he gets back from Abydos, and he, Ferretti, and Kawalsky all tell General West a collection of semi-truths and flat lies about what happened on the Stargate Mission, and the General tests it by trying to send a probe back to Abydos, and fails, and he's let to go home, it isn't home any more.

Sara has left. She's done with him, with their life together.

Not hard to see why.

He doesn't give her any trouble. He lets her have the house. He buys a cabin in the hills – it's near Cheyenne Mountain, but that doesn't matter: he retires again. Takes the odds and ends from the house that Sara wants to give him. Buys some furniture. Buys a truck. Settles in. Heals.

Nobody bothers him.

One of the things Sara gave him was Charlie's telescope. He buys a better one, takes up astronomy in earnest. It's quiet on the roof at night. He likes that. The viewing is adequate, if not spectacular.

Sometimes he wonders if he's looking for Abydos, though he knows he wouldn't know it if he found it.

Wonders how the Doc is doing.

Never going to know.

And one day -- night -- they come from The Mountain asking him about the Stargate.

#

It is another day before they come.

The wind is already rising for the evening sandstorm – there's one every evening except during the Rains – and the fine talc-like dust filters down between the stones of the temple. It's truly a miracle everyone here doesn't have Miner's Lung.

Still, the pyramid is one of the most comfortable places to be during the sandstorm. You hardly notice the wind.

The temple looks very different now than it did when she first arrived. For one thing, people live here now. The guards for the _chappa'ai_ of course, and their friends and women. She lives here, when she's studying the Cartouche Room, since it's a long walk back to Nagada and she hates riding the _mastadges_.

So… there are curtains up to partition off rooms, and cooking fires, and bundles of clothing, food, other supplies. Torches line the walls now, giving light.

They have taken back the space from Ra.

That feels good.

She spent the day in the Cartouche Room. Sha're came to get her to bring her back to the temple before the storm; you have to cross a mile of open sand to get here; the Cartouche Room is the building she saw from Ra's spaceship. She came back to the temple. They began to prepare the evening meal. Here, the boys help; it is different than in the village; the temple is like a herding camp, and the social rules are more relaxed here. It is, she supposes, one of the reasons she spends so much time here. There are things she wants to change about this society, and she must do it here, where the elders aren't around to disapprove.

She will teach them to write.

Of course, it would be nice to have something to write _on_ first. Clay, wax, paper…

The Stargate begins to move.

_" <Move, move!>"_ she tells them, and they scatter, grabbing for their guns. She and Sha're duck into an alcove; neither of them is armed.

The inner ring spins. Seven of the red triangles click into place and glow brightly. The wormhole engages with a fountaining of energy. Stabilizes.

#

Jack and five other people walk -- stagger -- through.

They're covered in frost.

She sees Kawalsky and Ferretti. The others she doesn't know. One is a woman. The woman sits down on the steps of the Stargate, groaning.

"Shouldn't have had that big lunch, huh?" Jack says, stepping past her. His tone is faintly derisive.

Looks like there's somebody new Jack doesn't like.

The woman is carrying a gun.

The six of them regroup and step out into the open space, guns at the ready.

Jack looks awfully tense for just a return visit, actually.

The Abydans swing out from behind the pillars. Suddenly the room is filled with people pointing guns at each other, and in a minute, one of them is going to go off.

She hurries out from the alcove.

_"Cha'hari! Cha'hari!"_ Peace. "Lower your guns."

The Abydans lower their guns, looking at her. After a moment, Jack and the others lower theirs too.

"Hi, Jack," she says. "Welcome back."

Jack walks toward her. Then his eyes travel past her.

"Skaara!"

"O'Neer! I did not think to be seeing you again!"

Jack moves past her to hug her brother, then turns to her.

"Doc. How you doing?"

"Good," she says. "You?"

He looks a lot better than he did the last time she shoved him through the Gate. But something's wrong.

"Much better, now that I see that everyone's okay."

_Why wouldn't we be okay, Jack?_

"Greetings from Earth, Dr. Jackson," Ferretti says. He waves a hand at her.

"Hello, Ferretti," she says, grinning at him.

"Brought you a little something, Doc," Kawalsky says. He hands her a small packet of Kleenex. She tucks it into her sash.

"Kawalsky." She tips him a two-fingered salute. He grins at her.

_" <Sha're,>"_ she says. _" <Come. Come. Don't be shy.>"_

Though she doubts Sha're is shy so much as stubborn, and very suspicious of Jack's motives.

Sha're comes out from behind the curtain, holding her Maiden's Veil firmly in place. Only her eyes are visible. She stands beside Dani, nudges her firmly with a hip. _Veil in front of strangers!_

Dani refuses to take the hint. She'll take her scolding later, instead.

All things considered, joining Skaara's household will probably be a better idea.

She can bully Skaara.

"So I figure it was only a matter of time before you had to tell the truth about me being here?" she asks.

"Yep. Why the militia? Has something else come through?"

Is that what he's worried about?

"No, just taking precautions. Why?"

"Amazing! This is what was missing from the dig at Giza. This is how they controlled it! It took us fifteen years and three supercomputers to MacGyver a system on Earth."

It's the woman Jack brought with him, the one he doesn't seem to like. She's staring down at the Dial Home Device and, well, babbling.

"Captain?"

"Look how _small_ it is!"

Nobody around her cares. Dani wonders why it's particularly interesting that it should be small. But she sympathizes. The woman Captain has found something that fascinates her and nobody wants to listen.

_"Captain."_ Jack has just run out of the patience he doesn't have. The Captain looks up. Jack motions to her. The Captain comes over.

"Oh, right. Excuse me. Dr. Jackson, I presume? I'm Dr. Samantha Carter."

She holds out her hand. Dani shakes it, wondering what her doctorate is in.

Can't be Egyptology. She'd be staring at the walls. Besides, Dani would have heard of her.

"Thought you wanted to be called 'Captain'," Jack drawls.

Yeah, he still gets along great with women with doctorates.

"Jack? What's going on?"

"Six hostile aliens came through the Stargate on Earth. Four people are dead. One's missing."

So he came _here?_

"One of them looked like Ra, Doc," Kawalsky says.

Oh.

"Well, they didn't come from here. We only unsealed our Stargate a few months ago, and even before that, the boys take shifts guarding it thirty-six hours a day, every day. We'd know if they came through here."

"Well, they came from somewhere, Doc," Jack says. "I'm gonna have to look around."

Like she'd ever hide one of those things here, after what Ra did?

"Sure, Jack. I, um… I think I can show you something that will help but, um, it's going to have to wait until this sandstorm is over. Um… We were about to have our evening meal. Why don't you join us?"

#

They catch up with the gossip of Nagada over dinner. Jack discovers he's expected to come to Sha're's wedding. He tells Skaara he has to leave soon, but will try to come back.

Skaara's 'moonshine' is a big hit. She'd thought it would be. The Abydans have wine and beer, of course – both were known in Ancient Egypt – and once she'd described the concept of a still, he'd wanted to try building one.

She wants the alcohol for other purposes, like making ink. But it has a lot of uses.

She sits beside Captain-Doctor Carter, coaxes her to try the local foods.

"You'll like this. Really. Ignore what it looks like. Just try it."

The Captain-Doctor looks doubtful. "Dr. Jackson…"

"Dani," she says quickly. "Or Dana're, if you--"

"Doc, what are you _teaching_ these kids?" Jack demands, gasping. From the sound of things, he's just tried the moonshine.

She laughs. It's not that bad when you get used to it. She can't drink the beer, which is brewed from _yaphetta_ grain, and the wine gives her a screaming headache that lasts for days. She'd gotten cheerfully smashed on the first batch of hooch out of the still, though.

"Western civilization, Jack," she says happily. She picks up a fingerful of steamed sand-turtle and pops it into her mouth. Dubiously, the Captain-Doctor follows suit.

Better not let her know what she's eating. Even though it _is_ good.

"So this… This man who looked like Ra, who came to Cheyenne Mountain. He must have come through another Gate," she says to distract her.

"What other Gate?"

"Another Stargate?" Jack asks.

She thought he wasn't listening.

"The Stargate only goes here," Doctor Carter says.

"You're wrong," Dani says flatly.

#

It would be entertaining, he thinks, to watch the two of them go at it. The Doc has just called Captain Carter an idiot – oh, not in so many words, but the intent is plain.

"Excuse me, what did you say your degree was in again?"

"I'm a theoretical astrophysicist. And we ran hundreds of permutations on our calculations with no results. And I don't think an Egyptologist--"

"An Egyptologist – which, by the way, I actually am, technically, _not_ \- who has what you need and didn't have to make it work."

Time to break this up before the hair-pulling starts.

"Doc, what are you talking about?"

"I'll show you. Skaara, has the storm passed?"

#

At this time of year the evening sandstorms are brief and violent. Skaara goes to the entrance of the pyramid, and confirms that the storm is over.

She gets to her feet, tells the others she is taking Jack to see the _vili tao an._

Skaara tries to kiss her goodbye. Showing off for Jack. _His woman._ She shoves him away, laughing.

_" <You must take a wife first, to prove you're man enough for me!>"_

"What did you say to him?"

"Nothing, Jack."

#

They exit the pyramid. Jack has brought Kawalsky and Dr. Carter. The dusk is bright. The air is clear.

"There are a couple of hours of daylight left. But it's okay. I can find my way in the dark if I have to. Come on."

They cross the sand, as she explains how she found the Cartouche Chamber.

She leads them inside.

It is an enormous vaulted chamber, all in blue and gold. The walls are made of something that isn't stone. The eye of Ra glows at the end. Gigantic Horus hawks line the walls, and between them, bands of gold sweep from floor to ceiling, every one covered in cartouches.

"Oh my God, this is amazing, this is the archaeological find of the century," the Captain-Doctor says.

As if she could ever tell anyone about it. Dani really should figure out what to call Jack's new protégé. Even though she's starting to suspect that the woman's an idiot.

"So, Doc, you had a chance to translate this yet?" Jack asks.

"I think so."

"And… what does it say?"

"Well, it doesn't _say_ anything. Actually it's sort of a chart. More of a map."

"Of?"

She can't believe this. She's actually having a conversation involving consecutive sentences with Jack O'Neill.

She wonders which awards committee you notify.

"Well I haven't been able to analyze all of it, I mean look at it, it would take my whole life."

"Well, Doctor, we don't have that long," Jack says, with what passes in him for patience. Stating the obvious. Since it really _is_ almost patience – and not a death-threat – it makes her smile. "What's it a map _of?"_ he adds.

She decides to take him the long way through the answer, since Kawalsky is here to protect her. "Well the cartouches seem to be separated clearly into groupings. Each grouping is attached to the others with a series of lines, and each grouping of glyphs contain seven symbols, so you can see where this is going, of course."

"Tell us anyway," he says, the not-quite-sincerity in his voice enough to remind her of who she's talking to. Not someone who's totally on board with the idea of pure research.

"All of the symbols here are on the Abydos Stargate. I've also managed to chart some of them -- constellations -- in the Abydos night sky, or at least pretty close. Jack, I think that this is a map -- an address book -- of a vast network of Stargates. Stargates that are… are all over the galaxy."

"I don't see how that can be, um, Dani. After Colonel O'Neill and his team came back, my team tried hundreds of symbol permutations using Earth as the point of origin and the Stargate never worked," Dr. Carter says. Captain Carter? Whatever.

She shrugs. "I tried the same here and it didn't work either. But I figured the destinations I tried were either destroyed or buried. But, um, I mean, some of them somewhere must still exist."

Doctor Carter shakes her head. "I just don't think so."

Idiot.

"Oh yeah? Then where did your Ra Lookalike come from?"

Captain-Doctor Idiot looks thunderstruck. And as if she might actually be _thinking._ Dani takes pity on her. "Look, I don't pretend to know anything about Astrophysics, but… Couldn't the planets… change? I mean, drift apart or something like that?"

Doctor Carter's eyes light up. She looks at Dani with glee. "I knew I'd like you," she says, smiling.

Not the reaction Dani usually gets when she tells somebody they're an idiot and then blows a hole in their pet theory. But the woman isn't lying. She really means what she says.

"Why?" Dani asks suspiciously.

"You're right. According to the expanding universe model all bodies in the universe are constantly moving further apart…"

Hey, she can play this game.

"So in the thousands of years since the Stargates were built…"

"All the co-ordinates could have changed."

"But why does it still work between Abydos and Earth?"

"Abydos is probably the closest planet in the network to Earth. I mean, the closer they are the less the difference in relative position due to stellar expansion -- the further away the greater the difference. In a few thousand more years it won't work between Earth and Abydos either."

"Unless you can adjust for the displacement," Dani says. You can do that when the earth shifts items in a grave; there are computer programs. Surely there's something similar for stars?

"Right, now with this map as a base that should be easy. All we have to do is correct for Doppler's Shift, then I should be able to arrive at a computer model that can predict the adjustments necessary to get the Gate working again." She pulls a camera out of her pack and begins filming the walls.

Okay. Not an idiot. Dani cautiously decides she likes her.

"Okay, so what did we just figure out?" Kawalsky asks them.

She's always kind of liked Kawalsky.

"Any civilization advanced enough to build this gate network would be able to compensate for 50,000 years of stellar drift," Dr. Carter says.

"So…the Stargate can go other places?" Jack asks.

"The aliens could have come from anywhere," Dr. Carter says firmly.

Which at least means Jack's not going to be looking around here trying to blame _them,_ but isn't good for Earth, if Ra-like aliens have come there. Maybe she should go back to Nagada, and see if there are any more clues in the records there.

Tomorrow.

She follows Dr. Carter.

"So what do they call you? Captain? Doctor?"

"Why don't you call me Sam?" She smiles. Dani smiles back.

Sam's walking back up the far side of the chamber, just finishing her film record, when Jack's radio activates. They can't make anything out. Just the attempt. But he takes off at a dead run, and they all follow.

#

They hear gunfire as they enter the pyramid.

And worse.

The sound of the staff-weapons Ra's soldiers carried.

Jack makes a grab for her. She ducks away. She's small and fast, she's been wrestling with Skaara for the past year…

And she's desperate.

They reach the Stargate. It's active.

The dead are everywhere.

Marching toward it are men with the heads of serpents. Armor. The serpent-eyes glow red.

They have Sha're and Skaara. They are _taking_ them.

To be enslaved, tortured, victimized by creatures like Ra.

No.

She grabs a gun from the ground. She knows how to shoot now. Kawalsky taught Skaara, and Skaara taught her. She opens fire on the Apep warriors, running forward.

The one in gold vanishes through the Stargate. The one holding Skaara follows. As the others turn and prepare to fire, the one holding Sha're turns, too. He will go through the Gate in a moment. Taking Sha're away to a life of slavery and pain. Horror. Madness. Death.

She has seen it in the catacomb frescoes.

_Sister. Beloved._

She sweeps the gun toward him, screaming inside.

Sha're's body explodes, dancing in the Apep-warrior's arms as the bullets hit it. The bullets ring off his armor, but he does not fall.

Flashes of light around her.

Gunfire behind her.

The Apep-warrior drops Sha're's body. Retreats.

They all retreat.

The Stargate closes.

She drops the gun. Runs forward.

Dead. Beyond last words. Beyond a kiss farewell. Blood mingles with the dust on the stones, and all she can think of is that her parents' death smelled the same way, Anubis' death looked the same way. She cannot see the worst, because Sha're's robes hide it. She kneels beside the body. Blood soaks into her robes.

Sha're's mouth is open, filled with blood.

O'Neill yanks her to her feet.

"What the hell were you--" Sees Sha're. Stops.

"They have Skaara," she whispers.

#

The Abydans say that Ra has returned. Kawalsky wants to know if there can be another Ra.

"How the hell should I know? Oh, god, we should have left it buried." Her grief is too deep for tears.

Her fault. Her fault. Sha're is dead and Skaara is gone. Her fault.

They tell her that they need to get their wounded back to Earth.

Ferretti may have seen where the Apep-warriors went. May have seen the address.

Jack has orders to bring her back. Says they can get Skaara back if she comes home.

She gathers the survivors around her. Tells them to barricade the Gate after they are gone.

_" <Nothing good can ever come through it! Nothing!>"_

_" <You came through, Dana're,>"_ Sabef says. He touches her head. The others cluster around her, touching, soothing, forgiving.

She tells them to close the Gate. That one year from this day they can open it again. On that day, she will bring Skaara back to them. Or she will not come back.

If she does not come back, they must bury the Gate forever.

_" <Forever, do you understand? You must… you must take Sha're to our father. Tell him I will return in one year.>"_

She hopes they will do as she asks.

They have covered Sha're's body. She cannot look at it. She sees it anyway. They've used a curtain. The blood is soaking through.

She will not be here to say the prayers when they send her sister to walk among the gods.

She does not want to cry. She wants to scream.

She breaks away from the villagers. Picks up her backpack. She will need what's in there, where she's going. Notes. Records. Drawings.

Walks to the Dial Home Device. Punches in the coordinates for Earth. Draws her veil modestly about her face. Sha're would have wanted her to.

They step through.

#

The light of the Gateroom is blinding and harsh.

Medics come for Ferretti.

They have something on their Stargate now called an 'iris.' It will keep people from just walking through.

Lucky them.

General West is gone. There's someone named General Hammond now. Jack tells him that they were hit by hostiles, that Skaara was kidnapped. She tells General Hammond that Skaara is her brother, that she wants to be on the team that goes to find him. General Hammond tells her she's in no position to make demands.

#

Someone in a uniform leads her out of the Gateroom. Because she's covered in blood, they take her down to the Infirmary. It's not her blood, but telling that doesn't seem worth the effort. Once they find out she isn't hurt, they tell her she wants to do a lot of things, and it doesn't seem worth the energy to argue.

She showers. They asked her sizes, and have provided her with a change of clothes. She's back in the military now, in an olive green jump suit. She has a box of Kleenex tucked under one arm; not because she's crying, but because she can't stop sneezing.

She stands in the hallway. Nobody has told her where to go now. Abydos is gone. Stripped away. Washed away.

She has to find Skaara. Jack has promised they will look for him.

Safe. Sha're is safe. She is with the gods.

But it hurts so much.

All of a sudden Jack walks around the corner. Obviously on his way somewhere, but in civilian clothes. Kind of a shock. Jack in civilian clothes.

"Hey," he says, seeing her. Obviously wondering what she's doing here.

She shrugs. "They don't exactly know what to do with me."

She doesn't know what to do with herself.

"Yeah. C'mon. Let's get out of here."

She follows him out.

#

They drive off the Base, through the city. It's night here, too. It always seems to be night in Colorado Springs; she's never seen the city in daylight. Spring or early summer, she thinks, but she shivers in the damp cold. Her allergies hit her like a hammer. It's getting hard to breathe at all.

"You know," he says, watching her work her way through the box of Kleenex, "there are things like… drugs."

"Yeah," she says. "Here."

He pulls up at an all-night drugstore. She wonders what time it is; there aren't many cars in the lot. Tells her to wait. Goes inside. Comes back a few minutes later with a bag. Drops it in her lap. Starts the truck again.

She inspects the contents as he drives. More Kleenex. Several different kinds of antihistamines. A toothbrush.

Candy bars.

One of the things in the bag is liquid cold medicine of some kind. She wrestles the top off the bottle and swigs down several gulps. It tastes vile.

"You probably want to go easy on that stuff," he says.

She shrugs, replacing the top. What's it going to do, kill her? But the constant need to sneeze is fading by the time they reach his house, and her eyes don't itch quite so much.

They go inside.

Nice place.

He motions toward a chair.

#

The kid is damned tough.

No tears.

Learned how to fire a weapon while he was gone. And hit what she was aiming at. Apparently.

He doesn't know whether she shot Sha're on purpose or by mistake. He thinks, actually, it was on purpose. She's the one who spent the most time with Ra the last time. Has the best idea of what he'd do with prisoners.

Wouldn't want that for Sha're.

Seems to be able to talk to Carter.

Skaara's out there somewhere. In enemy hands.

If they can get the Gate to work the way Carter thinks -- if Ferretti pulls through -- if he saw the address the snake-guys dialed -- they can go after Skaara.

A lot of 'ifs.'

He goes into the kitchen. Takes two beers out of the fridge. Comes back. Hands her one. Probably should have offered her coffee.

But no, she slugs half of it back with the ease of a practiced beer drinker. Sighs.

"You know, I…" She shrugs. "Thanks."

He considers asking her what she thinks the snake-guys want with Skaara. But he doesn't really want to think about it. He doesn't need a good imagination; he's seen plenty in his time in Special Ops, most of it bad. And her eyes are just a little too wide, her gaze a little too fixed, behind those glasses.

She shot Sha're for a reason.

She's shivering. Not with shock, he thinks, but with cold. There's a fire still laid in the fireplace. He lights it, though it's a bit late in the season for it. She moves over and sits on the hearth, her back to the flames.

"So what did you guys do on Abydos after we left?" 

He wants to know about that, too. And she ought to talk. O'Neill distrusts brooding silence. And thinking too much.

"Oh, we… Big party. You guys left right at the beginning, you know. Went on for a couple of weeks. Abydos was _theirs._ No more mining. No more tribute. And, um, eventually I got them to stop bowing to me all the time. They all did, even Kasuf. If it hadn't been for… Sha're and Skaara didn't." She finishes the beer. "I was going to -- sort of -- marry him."

"Little young for you, isn't he?" She's got ten years on Skaara. At least.

"More of an alliance. Kinship relationships on Abydos among the royal house follow Ancient Egyptian dynastic patterns, really, and… can I have another beer?"

"Sure you can handle it?"

"I'm not a cheap date."

He goes back to the kitchen. Brings out two more beers, even though he's barely started his first. Hands her another. She opens it. Sips it. "So we started building a civilization. Our own. I taught them English. Started teaching some of them -- the younger ones -- letters. Trying to figure out a way to make paper, you know?"

"Haven't been doing much with the whole paper thing, lately." He was retired until Hammond dragged him back.

"What about you? Are they mad that you lied?" she asks.

"I think General Hammond may have gotten past that." He hopes so, anyway.

She's looking around curiously. "And the other stuff? That work out? Because you kind of seem to be… all alone here."

"Yeah, well. When I came back from Abydos, Sara'd already… left."

She winces, runs a hand over her face, pushing her glasses up and rubbing her eyes. "Sorry. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, so was I. I think she forgave me for what happened. She just… couldn't forget."

"What about you, Jack?"

The question is a little more direct than he was expecting. But he supposes he owes her an answer. If he hadn't gone to Abydos with that bomb in the first place, they wouldn't be sitting here now. And now she has dead of her own.

"I'm the opposite. I'll never forgive myself. But sometimes I can forget. Sometimes."

"I'd like to forget," she says softly, staring down at the bottle in her hands.

#

Three beers and she's out. Shock and half a bottle of cold medicine probably helped. She never gets sloppy or hysterical. Just efficiently drinks herself unconscious, while talking idly about daily life on Abydos until her voice finally slows and blurs. When she finally leans back against the hearth, eyes closed, O'Neill picks her up and lays her out on the couch. Takes off her glasses and sets them aside. Takes off her boots. Finds a blanket to cover her.

What the hell are they going to do with her?

#

She wakes up abruptly. Dawn. Shouldn't be dawn for hours yet. Where is she?

She sits up.

Earth. Jack's house.

Sha're is dead. Skaara is gone. _'He is young, but he is daily growing…'_ No one to make her _hemet_ now.

She needs to find a bathroom. She gets to her feet, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders -- cold, _cold_ – and gropes around until she find her glasses. There they are. She settles them on her nose. Goes looking. There's a bathroom down the hall – a half-bath. All she needs. At the moment she's more squeaky-clean than she's been since the Rains. She luxuriates in hot water from the tap, washes her face. Goes back to the living room. Her sinuses are starting to fill up again, but there's a lot more medicine in the bag from last night. She'll read the labels this time. Plus, there's a toothbrush. No comb, but her hair is short. She can get by.

#

The sound of someone moving around his house wakes him. He rolls over, slips his hand around the butt of the gun he keeps under the pillow. Comes fully awake. Takes his hand away again. No. Not an intruder. A guest. Dr. Danielle Jackson.

He checks the clock. It's a little after five. There's a briefing back at The Mountain scheduled for 1300 hours.

He rolls back over. Sighs. Might as well get up.

#

"Coffee?"

She's sitting curled up in the chair she started out in last night. Wrapped up in the blanket. Eating candy bars.

"Yeah. That'd be… Did I wake you up?"

"Early riser." He goes into the kitchen. She follows him.

"So. Now. What?"

"There's a briefing scheduled for 1300 hours today." He looks up, sees her look of incomprehension. "One o'clock. After that, we'll know more. A lot depends on whether Carter can get the Stargate working."

"She _has_ to. The Apep-warriors did. We know it can be done."

"'Apep…?'"

"They had the heads of cobras, but there are no male cobra-headed Egyptian deities. So it had to be Apep, the Snake god."

"And a snake isn't a cobra because…?"

She shrugs. "The Egyptians made a distinction between Apep and Wadjet. Or Renenutet."

Right.

"How do you like your eggs?"

"Cooked?"

#

Sam and Kawalsky and Jack are there with her in the Briefing Room, plus a lot of other people she doesn't know. They are waiting for General Hammond. Major Samuels announces him formally. Everyone stands. General Hammond reminds them that everything they're about to talk about is classified SCI Top Secret. Whatever that means. Who would she tell?

It's just occurred to her that when he came back, Jack told General West she was dead. That's going to complicate things.

General Hammond asks Jack what they know about the hostiles that they didn't know yesterday.

"Not a hell of a lot General. The Abydan boys who survived the attack on the base camp thought it was Ra."

"I thought he was dead, ladies and gentlemen. Which is it?"

"Oh, he's dead, he's definitely dead," she says without thinking. She looks at Jack, thinks of the light in the sky over the pyramid. "I mean um, …the bomb… he's gotta be dead, right?"

Nothing could have survived that.

"Then who's coming through the Stargate?" General Hammond wants to know.

Apep warriors. Not Horus hawks or Anubis jackals. "The Gods," she says.

"What?" General Hammond says. There is a faint note of outrage in his voice. He's from Texas. West Texas, she thinks. Buckle of the Bible Belt.

"Oh, not as in _God,_ god. Ra played -- impersonated -- a god. The Sun God. He used the culture and religion of the Ancient Egyptians he brought through the Gate to enslave them. You see, he wanted the people of Abydos to believe he was the only one. The only god."

_'There can be only one Ra.'_

"So you're saying that Ra isn't the last of his race after all?" Sam asks.

"Maybe he's got a brother… Ray," Kawalsky gibes.

"Just what we need," Jack mutters.

"Wait a minute," she says. "The legend on the walls at Nagada tells that Ra's _race_ was dying. He survived by taking the body of a young Egyptian boy as a host, in a …parasitical relationship. So who's to say that more of his kind couldn't do the same thing? I mean, this could have happened any time. Anywhere there's a Gate, and we know there must be thousands of Gates. It could be happening right now."

General Hammond doesn't look happy to hear this. "Colonel, you've had the most experience of fighting this hostile. Assuming you have to defend yourself in the field, are you up to it?"

"We beat 'em once."

Yeah, with a nuclear warhead and five thousand shock troops.

"I'll take that as a maybe. Captain Carter, you're confident that the Stargate will take us where we want to go with this new information?"

She's gotten it to work?

"Well, they're feeding the revised co-ordinates into the targeting computer right now. It'll take time to calculate, but it should spit out two or three destinations a month."

General Hammond looks around the table. "People, let's not fool ourselves here. This thing is both vast and dangerous, and we are so far over our heads we can barely see daylight. We would all be much better off if the Stargate had been left in the ground."

For a moment, she's terrified he's about to do exactly that. Seal it up and walk away. But then he says that the President has ordered the formation of nine reconnaissance teams to go through the Stargate. To look for the enemy. To -- if possible -- make peaceful contact with the people on all those worlds out there.

It will be a secret project.

"Colonel O'Neill, your team will be designated SG-1. The team will consist of yourself, Captain Carter--"

"And me," she says. She has to go. Skaara is out there.

"Doctor Jackson, we need you to work as a consultant with the SG Teams from here. Your experience in ancient cultures and languages is far too valuable…"

No. All her life she's been brushed aside, told to _stay home,_ told she isn't good enough to go.

Not this time.

"No. Look. I, um, General Hammond…" What can she say to convince him? "I know this is your decision…" If he won't let her go, she's leaving. "…but I just really have to be on their team. My brother is out there. And I… know… these gods. I talked to one. Wherever you send… SG-1, you'll need someone with them who can talk to people."

"I'll take that under consideration," General Hammond says.

She knows that means 'no.' She also knows that arguing with him here isn't going to get her anywhere. She stares at her hands, frustrated and angry, shutting the conversation around her out. She got them to Abydos in the first place. She gave Sam what she needed to make it work again here.

And they don't care.

#

Ferretti is awake.

The meeting comes to an abrupt end.

#

They have the address the Apep-guards dialed.

#

"General?"

"Colonel?"

"I'd like to make a formal request to add Dr. Jackson to SG-1." He enters General Hammond's office. The General waves him to a seat.

"That's a little bit irregular, Colonel."

"Yes sir, it is. But she's right about needing to talk to the people we meet on the other side of the Gate. The people on Abydos didn't speak English. It only took her about a day to figure out what they were saying. And… how do we get back?"

The General looks at him. Waiting.

"We go through. We've got the address for that. Coming back… Our home address is the same six symbols we used to come home from Abydos. But the seventh one will be different. We need her to find it."

"And you think she can do that, Colonel?"

"I know she can do that, General."

There's a long pause while General Hammond considers.

"Very well, Colonel. Dr. Jackson is on your team."

#

"You're on SG-1."

They still haven't figured out what to do with her. He finds her in the Commissary. She's at a table in the corner, with an entire carafe of coffee sitting in front of her. She's gotten a pad of paper from somewhere, and is scribbling notes. She's got the backpack she brought back from Abydos. There are a couple of very battered journals piled on the table. Another is open. It is filled with tiny, precise writing. Drawings of Gate symbols. She looks up. Grins at him as if he's just offered her a chance to do something other than walk into incredible danger and get shot at.

"Thanks," she says simply.

"Well c'mon. We go through in half an hour. You need a lot of… stuff."

#

They go through.

_Cold._

The Gate here is out in the open. It's surrounded by two concentric rings of small stones. Jack has told her they need the seventh symbol, the identifier for this planet. She gets to work, ignoring the others. They've given her a video camera like Sam's. She films the Gate quickly, then sets to work.

Sneezes. She took more antihistamines before she left, but apparently not enough. At least she brought Kleenex. And at least -- this time -- she doesn't have to find all seven symbols. They know six of them. This time it's easy. The same symbol is carved into every one of the stones that make up the rings. It appears on the Gate. She opens her notebook, finds the page where she wrote down the symbols for Earth, adds the seventh symbol. She makes a second copy of the address on a piece of scratch paper, finds Kawalsky. He and his men are unpacking gear from the sled they brought with them. Kawalsky has been given SG-2. They're going to guard the Gate while she, Jack, and Sam go looking for Skaara.

"Got it," she says, handing him the paper.

"That was quick," he says. "You sure?"

"No, Kawalsky, I'm making it all--" a sneeze interrupts her. 

He pats her on the shoulder and goes back to work. She sighs. Nobody ever lets her finish a sentence. She walks over to the DHD and stares down at it. So many symbols. So many possible combinations. She starts making a quick sketch of the layout of the stones. Jack walks over to her.

"This must be some kind of ceremonial place," she tells him. "See the offerings? The arrangement of the stones? Whoever's here, the Gate is… It has to be an integral part of their spiritual culture. Jack, this place was built for worshipers."

"Yeah, well, let's just try and be out of here before the worshipees turn up, eh? You figure out how to get us home yet?"

"Got it. See the symbol carved into all the stones? That glyph represents--"

"You brief Kawalsky's team yet"?

"Yes. We were right -- back on Abydos -- about the seventh symbol being geographical, not celestial. It represents--"

"Good job." He walks away. Great. They brought her along because she's an expert and now they aren't going to listen to her.

She wonders if Jack O'Neill ever lets _anyone_ finish a sentence.

#

One of the airmen -- it's the Air Force, so the soldiers are called airmen, not soldiers -- on SG-2 has found a trail that looks like it's in current use. They follow it.

"I'm sorry about Sha're," Sam says to her as they walk.

Dani doesn't know what to say. "She has gone to walk among the gods," she says at last. She realizes Sam doesn't understand. "The… good gods. The ones who are real. Ra… they know he was only pretending to be a god. But they still believe."

"Hold up," Jack says.

"What?"

There are people coming. Not Apep-warriors. Hooded figures, but their robes are patterned to mimic snakeskin. Interesting. Part of the Gate priesthood?

Jack motions for them to hide. "All right, Captain. Take up a position fifty yards…"

He's planning an ambush.

She steps out into the trail again. There are about a dozen of them. They're carrying staffs with cobra heads. "Hi," she says. "Um, we just came through the Stargate." Blank looks. No English. Maybe they speak the same variant of Egyptian they spoke on Abydos? _"Chappa'ai?"_ she says, pointing back the way she came. _You brought me along to talk to people, Jack. Let me do my job._

_"Chappa'ai! Chappa'ai!" All of them kneel and bow their heads._

"Oh, please don't do that," she groans.

"For crying out loud," Jack says, stepping out onto the trail behind her. He sounds disgusted. Well, that's nothing new. "Friends of yours?" He glances back toward Sam. "She hasn't changed at all," he says.

She wonders what Jack has been telling Sam about her.

"Well unless we want to give ourselves a really bad reputation, I just think we should avoid shooting the first people we meet on a new planet," Dani points out irritably. She looks back at the priests. They grovel even lower. "Oh, please, you _don't_ have to do this." She kneels down in front of the chief priest.

_"Chula a lazla?"_ he asks hopefully.

Not Abydan. But something she can fumble through. She hopes.

_"'Lazla...'_ Choose." A form of Arabic. She looks up at Jack. "They want to know if we're here to choose."

Jack waves a hand in agreement. Sure.

"Ah, um, yeah. Sure. We can choose. _Na'am, lazla._. Choosing is good." She looks up again. "It's a form of Arabic, but I think it's combined with--"

Still not listening. "Yeah, sure, all right, whatever. Just ask 'em to take us to the nearest village or town."

What is the word and how do they pronounce it? _"Arush? Aroosh?"_ 'Arush' is 'town.'

The priest gets the idea. They all stand. Apparently the _arush_ is called Chulak.

#

Chulak looks like a medieval Italian town crossed with Ancient Rome. Higher level of civilization here than on Abydos, but not by much, considering that it seems to be the homeworld of Ra's race. She'd sort of expected outer space to be glitzier. The elders lead the three of them through the streets to a large building, to an airy chamber decorated with banners and garlands, where people -- all human -- are seated around a low table covered with food in elaborate metal dishes. It seems to be some sort of celebration.

The priests lead them to seats at the table -- they have to kneel on the floor; there are cushions -- and hurry away. The people glance at them and away, whispering in the local language. Everyone here has a golden symbol on their forehead. The priests had black ones. They offer them golden cups filled with liquid. She sniffs at hers. Some kind of fruit juice?

The people all stare at them warily out of the corners of their eyes. Sophisticated clothing. She can't place the cultural referents, or the fabrics. But everything is more sophisticated here than on Abydos.

"Why are they treating us like this?" Sam asks.

"They think we're gods," she answers.

"Okay," Jack says agreeably. "We're gods. Now what?"

"I have no idea." They need to search this …palace… for Skaara. But how do they get out of this room without offending everyone?

Suddenly she hears a sound. There's someone standing in the corner with a horn looped around him: it looks like a giant ram's horn. He blows a long low note, like the sound the Abydans used to warn of the sandstorm's coming.

She hears the sound of marching feet. Everyone at the table freezes and bows down. She copies their actions, motioning for the other two to do the same. Jack really doesn't want to. Classic Alpha Male.

"Come on!" she whispers urgently. "When in Rome…"

Reluctantly, he follows her lead. Sam bows because he does. Right. Military hierarchy. Dominance patterns. She needs to learn more about that.

Cobra-headed warriors in silver armor file into the room. They _are_ cobras, but male. That's wrong. She's missing something in the iconography. What?

Two more people enter the room. They are dressed in elaborate finery. A man and a woman. The woman is veiled. The man has dark skin and dark eyes like Ra, but he is not Ra. Not a boy. Older.

But his eyes flash. "Behold your Queen." His voice is the same. Buzzing. Inhuman. But he's speaking _English._

She feels sick.

He reaches out and unveils the woman. Blonde. Blue-eyed. Her eyes glow too.

She looks at the three of them. Focuses on their uniforms as if she recognizes them. Her eyes flash. " _Tau'ri_ ," she says. Her voice is filled with hate.

"We're made," Jack says. He rises up into a crouch, lifting his gun. The dark-skinned man raises his hand.

She doesn't remember anything else.

#

She dreams. In her dream, it is Sha're standing beside the man with glowing eyes. She calls out to her sister. _Help us!_ But Sha're's eyes glow too. She has become like Ra. Lost to them.

Lost to her.

Someone is shaking her, calling her name.

Sam.

She gasps away the nightmare, trying to sit up.

Her head hurts.

Sam tells her she's been unconscious for hours.

They're in an enormous cell. Large. Damp. Smells of sewage. The floor is covered with sawdust. It is filled with people. Their dress indicates they're from many different places. Sam helps her to sit up, to stand. She's shaking with cold.

Jack comes over. "Well, if there's a way out of here, I haven't found it yet. But look what I did find." He sounds pleased.

_Skaara._

She hugs her brother, holding him tightly.

_" <Sha're is not here, Dana're -- I have not seen-->"_

_" <She is with the Gods. She is on Abydos. I swear this to you.>"_

Tears glitter in his eyes. "She is dead?"

"Dead." Not a monster with glowing eyes. Dead.

A wave of dizziness rocks her. Skaara and Jack ease her back to the floor. Skaara kneels beside her, as if he can protect her here.

"Take it easy," Jack says to her. "You got the worst of it. That guy used some kind of weapon on you. Knocked you back against the wall up there."

"What… happened?" she asks.

"That blonde didn't like the looks of us. All hell broke loose. Those snake-head guys in the armor moved in, and… here we are." Jack hesitates, looking around. "If we can't find our way outta here, the mission's a bust anyway. They seal the Gate in just over ninety minutes."

With the Gate sealed, they can't get home again, even if they can get back to it.

"C'mon, Skaara. Let's find a way out of here," Jack says.

Suddenly there is movement at the gates to the dungeon. They're iron. A latticework. Cobra-headed guards with energy-lances march in. The other prisoners scramble back toward the walls. Male cobra-headed guards. She's missing something.

Her head hurts.

One of them -- from his position among the Serpent Guards, the leader -- marches up to Jack. Grabs his arm. "What is this?"

More English. How weird is that?

He's staring at Jack's watch. Squeezing his arm hard.

"It's a _watch,"_ Jack says, through gritted teeth.

The Serpent Guard's helmet folds up into a kind of hood, making him look even more like a cobra. Dark skin. Darker than the man in the ritual chamber upstairs, African features, but no tribal group she recognizes. In the middle of his forehead, he has a large golden symbol; unlike the ones on the people upstairs, this one is raised, like a scar. Not one of the ones from the Stargate. "This is not _Goa'uld_ magic. Where are you from?"

"Earth. Chicago, if you want to be specific."

"Your words mean nothing to me. _Where are you from?"_ The alien squeezes harder. He's going to break Jack's arm in a moment.

"Hey? Hello?" She looks up at the alien, draws their point of origin symbol in the sawdust. "This. This is where we're from."

The alien lets Jack go. He scrapes the symbol out with his staff weapon and walks away. Jack rubs his arm, looking down at her. His face is blank. Did she just do something wrong?

Damn him anyway.

#

There are more ways for a mission to go spectacularly wrong -- there was East Germany in '82, after all -- but he can't remember the last time so many things went wrong at once.

It all started with the blonde. Not sure how she recognized them. Or _what_ she recognized.

He has no idea where the Doc thought she was going. She stood right up, and as a result, was the one who got knocked into the wall when the Ra-guy waved his hand. He and Carter hadn't gotten a chance to get off a shot. The guys in the silver snake-suits had hit him over the head with the other end of their bang-sticks. Carter said she just got grabbed. So for the last several hours he's wandered around one of the better class of dungeons watching their time run out. No weapons, no grenades, no C4. No way out. And in about ninety minutes now, no way home, despite the fact that this time they had the address going in. The three of them -- and, if he knows him, Kawalsky's team -- is going to be stranded here. Well, Kawalsky will be. He suspects the blonde has other plans for them.

At least the Doc woke up eventually. And they've found Skaara. And the kid's okay. But…

The Doc really should learn to keep her mouth shut. Not that he wanted a broken arm. And it _is_ nice to have a name for the enemy. _Goa'uld_.

There was something going on in the big guy's head. He knows it. He's just not sure what it was. Why was he so interested in a _wristwatch,_ for crying out loud? Not like it's a weapon. He'll ask the Doc about that, when there's time. Meanwhile…

They're going to get out of here. There's a lot of traffic through that front gate. It's a weak spot. It can be exploited.

He's not going to think about any other possibility.

While he waits for them to open the gate again, he'll keep looking for other ways out.

#

There are windows. They're high, barred, and too small to get out through even if they weren't. Jack and Skaara are trying them anyway. She's sitting with Sam. She's figured it out.

"So Ra isn't dead after all?" Sam asks.

"No, it wasn't Ra, Sam. It's Apophis."

"Who?"

She smiles. They're all going to die, and Sam is asking questions. She likes Sam.

"Egyptian mythology. Ra was the sun god who ruled the day. Apophis -- Apep -- was the Serpent god, Ra's rival, who ruled the night. It's right out of _The Book of Coming Forth By Day._ They -- the _Goa'uld_ \-- are living it. And… oh, god, Sam, the ancient Egyptians had _hundreds_ of gods…"

Footsteps in the hall outside. The Serpent Guards are back. She gets to her feet.

_"Shaka ha! Kree hol mel, Goa'uld_!" their leader says.

It's a variant on the Abydan dialect. She thinks she knows what he's saying. The _Goa'uld_ are going to choose who will be the children of the gods. They -- the _Goa'uld_ \-- have come for… hosts. They have come to choose.

A curtained litter is brought to the doorway. The man she saw before -- Apophis! -- steps out. He helps the veiled woman -- his blonde consort -- out after him. Others -- more _Goa'uld_? -- follow.

_"Benna! Ya wan, ya daru!_ Kneel before your masters!" the chief Serpent Guard says. He wears no helmet. It is the one who spoke to Jack before.

She won't kneel. She won't.

Sam drags her down. The Serpent Guards move through the people, making them kneel. Even Jack kneels. Skaara is beside him. The gorgeously-robed … _Goa'uld_ … move among the kneeling prisoners, as unconcerned as if they are inspecting inanimate objects for sale.

_"Benna, ya wan ya daru!_ Choose!" the chief Serpent Guard says.

Several of the people in the cell are taken and dragged out of the cell. She begins to hope. The Abydans said that Ra took his tribute and left. Maybe Apophis will do the same. Once he's gone, they'll have a chance…

Apophis is Choosing as well. He pauses beside Jack and Skaara and she holds her breath.

He Chooses Skaara.

Skaara screams for Jack as he is dragged away. The _Goa'uld_ retreat. Jack lunges after Skaara. A guard clubs him down. Sam claps a hand over her mouth and wrestles with her, keeping her on her knees. She hears someone give an order to kill them all.

The _Goa'uld_ are gone.

Panic. Chaos. Everyone in the huge stone chamber is on their feet now, running toward the far walls, trying to hide, but there's no place to hide. The Serpent Guards form ranks in front of the gates, level their lances. The one who spoke to Jack before is at the front. The three of them stand at the front of the terrified mob. As if they can save the others. They'll only die first.

"I can save these people!" Jack has stepped forward, is speaking to the chief Serpent Guard. Desperately. Urgently. "Help me! _Help me."_

No one fires into the crowd yet. They're waiting for the order. The Serpent Guard raises his lance. She takes a deep breath.

"Many have said that." The Serpent Guard turns and fires on his own men. Throws his weapon to Jack. Picks up another from one of the men he has just killed. "But you are the first I have believed could do it!"

She and Sam throw themselves to the ground as the Serpent Guard and Jack blast the remaining guards. The other prisoners scream, try to hide. None of them is hit, a minor miracle. The shooting stops.

"Get out of the way!" Jack shouts.

She scrambles up, grabs one of the staff weapons.

Jack blasts the back wall of the cell. It takes several shots, but the wall crumbles. There's an opening. Daylight. The three of them chivy the prisoners through. Jack asks her if she's going to be okay.

She doesn't answer.

Skaara.

#

He stops. Looks back. The big guy isn't moving. "Hey, c'mon!" They've got just about an hour before Hammond seals the Gate. They can make it if they hurry.

"I have nowhere to go," the man says bleakly.

"For this you can stay at my place. Let's go!" The man comes forward, steps through the gap in the wall. Follows O'Neill. Carter and the Doc are doing a fair job of keeping the prisoners moving, but they're not moving fast. "What's your name?" Gotta call him something.

And they've got to get Skaara back.

"Teal'c."

"Teal'c, where will they take Skaara? The boy who was with me?"

"To the Stargate. After they have selected hosts for their children."

Hosts. O'Neill tries not to wince.

#

It's about five miles back to the Stargate. They try, but they can't keep everyone with them. As soon as they reach open country, some of the people just… run. She hears a babble of languages around her. Can't make sense of them all. Often it is English. She tries to explain that they are taking them to safety. Some of the people believe her. Some don't. Jack has brought the chief Serpent Guard with them. The one who saved their lives. He says the alien's name is Teal'c.

Teal'c looks at her as if he knows her.

"We've got less than an hour," Jack says. Before the Stargate is sealed, he means. "How're we doing?"

"We lost a few when we got to the forest," Sam says.

"They will be hunted down and killed. Anyone who does not exist to serve the gods is their enemy," Teal'c says.

"And that makes you…?" Jack asks.

Hey, an actual question from Jack O'Neill.

"I am Jaffa. Bred to serve that they may live."

Bred?

"I don't understand," she says.

Teal'c stops. Opens his chain mail -- there's a vertical slit in the front of it; he's removed the breastplate she saw him wearing earlier. There's an 'X'-shaped mark on the bare skin of his abdomen, but it doesn't seem to be a wound. Suddenly the petals of flesh open, and a wet white worm pokes its head out. It looks like a giant tapeworm.

She wants to throw up.

The nearby refugees scream, cringe back.

The worm retreats. The …pouch…? closes. Teal'c closes his chainmail. They follow the refugees. He doesn't seem very upset for someone who's got a giant tapeworm living in his stomach.

"What the _hell_ is that?" Jack demands. He sounds shaken.

"It is an infant _Goa'uld_ , the larval form of the gods. I have carried one since I was a child, as all Jaffa carry one," Teal'c says calmly. Actually, she hasn't heard him be anything _but_ calm.

"Get it out of there!" Jack says.

"In exchange for carrying the infant _Goa'uld_ until maturity, a Jaffa receives perfect health and long life. Were I to remove it, I would soon die."

Jack looks at him. She knows what he's thinking. _Probably better to take that chance._

#

They are near the top of the last ridge. The Stargate is at the bottom of the hill on the far side. About a mile away. Jack has told her and Sam not to count on SG-2 to be here. If they have followed orders, they are already gone. They urge the refugees forward, toward the Stargate. If they are lucky, they will reach it in time to intercept the _Goa'uld_.

This is their last chance to save Skaara. Their last chance to get home. Only minutes now before they are trapped here, and Teal'c has said the _Goa'uld_ will hunt them down and kill them.

Probably especially him.

"The boy you seek is no longer who he was," Teal'c says warningly.

"I don't want to hear that," Jack answers simply.

She hears the howl of engines in the sky. Looks up. A ship. Small. Fast. It resembles a hawk in flight.

It fires.

The prisoners scatter. Some of them are hit. Jack and Teal'c fire back. She fires too. The difference is, they actually _hit_ it. It doesn't really make a difference.

"Sir! We're sitting ducks here!" Sam shouts.

There's no cover here at all. People die. The gunship comes around for another pass. Suddenly it explodes in mid-air. The scattered prisoners cheer.

"Kawalksy," Jack says.

SG-2 stayed.

#

She's on the crest of the hill looking down at the Stargate. Apophis, his queen, and Skaara are standing in front of it. Skaara is wearing the bright and beautiful clothing of the _Goa'uld_ now. Apophis dials. The Stargate engages. The three wait for it to settle, and once again they move, with serene indifference to everything but themselves, toward the event horizon.

Jack runs down the hill, across the open space, toward Skaara. The other two have passed through the Gate. She tries to follow Jack, but Teal'c holds her back. Jack is shouting for Skaara. Skaara turns toward him and smiles.

It is a smile that haunts her nightmares forever. She sees it clearly from where she is. It is her brother's smile, innocent and teasing, and Jack has nearly reached him. But then his eyes glow, and the smile turns hard. He raises his hand, and Jack is flung backward through the air.

She shrugs loose from Teal'c then and runs down to Jack. Skaara is gone and the Stargate is empty. She glances at the DHD, but there is nothing to see. The address is gone. She helps him to his feet. "Did you see it? Did you see the address?" she demands.

He doesn't answer. Meaning 'no.' Skaara is gone. More gone than before.

He has been _taken._

#

General Hammond will seal the Stargate… right about now. Their refugees are scattered all over the place. Sergeant Warren, SG-2, has spotted about a million Jaffa heading their way. They still have to try. She runs to the DHD and dials.

Wormhole.

Sam comes up beside her. Right. They have to send some kind of signal. Sam punches numbers into the box on her wrist. A light there changes from red to green.

"Is it working?" Dani asks suspiciously.

"If it's not, I'll be the first to know," Sam answers. If it isn't working, Sam will be smashed against the inside of the iris on the other side. She'll die.

Sam walks up. Steps through. The refugees see the escape route and start hurrying toward it. Dani stands on the steps of the Stargate, urging them through, as Jack and SG-2 fight off the Jaffa with enough guns to start a small war. They're still losing. And the refugees are moving so slowly. But at last there aren't any more.

"That's it!" she shouts.

"Go!" Jack shouts back.

She hesitates. How can she tell Skaara she has left his 'O'Neer' behind to die? Skaara. If she does not go, who will be left to search for him?

She steps through.

The silence of the Gateroom rings in her ears after the noise of the firefight. The Gateroom is filled with stunned refugees, airmen with guns, and one very irate General Hammond.

"They behind you?" Sam asks.

"I hope so," Dani says. She walks slowly down the ramp.

A moment later Teal'c and one more refugee come through the Gate. She and Sam shout at the airmen not to open fire. Sam takes Teal'c's weapon and hands it over to an airman. After a moment, Dani remembers she's still holding a staff weapon as well, and hands hers over too. Then Jack, Kawalsky, and another man appear. Jack gestures to Sam with his free hand. They are carrying the third man between them.

"Lock it up! Lock it up!" Sam shouts. The iris hisses closed.

There are thumps against it.

The medics come for the third man -- Casey -- and put him on a stretcher. Sam is telling General Hammond that they can use the Stargate to send the refugees home again. Dani just hopes that they all know their home addresses.

General Hammond is more interested in Teal'c at the moment. "What is he doing here?"

"General Hammond, this is Teal'c. He can help us." Jack sounds perfectly at ease.

"Do you know what he is?" General Hammond demands. A rhetorical question if she ever heard one.

"Yes, sir, I do. He's the man who saved our lives. And if you'll accept my recommendation, sir, he'll join SG-1."

The suggestion catches her by surprise. It can't mean anything to Teal'c, of course, and Jack's face is unreadable.

"That decision may not be up to you," General Hammond says.

She doesn't know whether there would have been an argument then, because suddenly Kawalsky sinks to his knees. Jack turns to him, and the moment is over. But it turns out to be just a momentary dizzy spell. She's glad he's all right. She didn't have time to learn the names of the people on SG-2, but half of them didn't make it back.

Kawalksy gives her a 'thumbs up' as he stands.

General Hammond tells them that they will be debriefed at 0730. She wonders when that is, and what time it is now. Sam will probably know.

Airmen come, leading the refugees from the Gate room.

She looks back at the Gate. Skaara is out there.

Jack comes to stand beside her.

"Skaara," she says. "What do we do?"

"We find him," Jack says firmly.

She believes him. He won't give up. They'll find Skaara.

"Doc, Teal'c, time to get the two of you squared away."

They and Sam follow him out of the Gateroom.

###

**Author's Note:**

> Handicapped only slightly by the complete lack of access to source material, our intrepid fanwriter soldiers on, only a little surprised by the fact that Dani's highest aim in life now seemed to be getting married. It's one of the main points where genderflip affects experience: Daniel Jackson doesn't have to worry about belonging to someone, in terms of being a part of Abydan society, but Dani Jackson does. (Yes, this is an ongoing theme.)
> 
> You'll notice that in the Dani'verse, Sha're is dead (and so, clearly, not a host for Amaunet). With the blonde _Tau'ri_ airwoman as Amaunet's new host, this universe starts its magisterial path of TV-canon divergence. 
> 
> Also: I know it's confusing, but remember that "Anubis" was the name of Dani's dog. Nobody knows about the _Goa'uld_ Anubis... yet.


End file.
